by Kiley Crossland Posted 1/15/19, 11:30 am

Rulings this week from federal judges in California and Pennsylvania have forced an order of Catholic nuns to continue a five-year legal battle to defend its religious exemption to the federal contraceptive and abortifacient mandate. The Little Sisters of the Poor fought for freedom of conscience all the way to the U.S.

by Kiley Crossland & Lynde Langdon Posted 1/14/19, 05:35 pm

UPDATE: A federal judge in Philadelphia issued a nationwide injunction Monday against new Trump administration rules that would have allowed employers with moral or religious objections to birth control and abortifacient drugs to opt out of the Obamacare mandate requiring them to provide coverage for the drugs for free to their employees. U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone said the exemptions could harm women who might lose coverage and states that would have to pick up the costs.

by Rachel Lynn Aldrich Posted 12/11/18, 04:23 pm

A Virginia teacher was fired Thursday after he refused to use male pronouns for a female student who identifies as a boy.

The West Point School Board in West Point, Va., voted unanimously to dismiss French teacher Peter Vlaming, 47, after a four-hour hearing. The school said in a statement that Vlaming’s refusal constituted “a willful violation of school board policy.”

Lynde Langdon | 12/11/18, 01:30 pm

A U.S. district court on Tuesday ordered the federal government not to enforce the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive and abortifacient mandate against six Christian organizations represented by Alliance Defending Freedom. The order also declares that the mandate violates the organizations’ rights protected by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Harvest Prude | 7/10/18, 04:34 pm

An Anchorage, Alaska, law firm representing a Christian women’s shelter is defending itself from a suit brought by the same liberal group suing the shelter. The case raises a question: Will lawyers come under fire for defending religious clients accused of discrimination?

Lynde Langdon | 6/05/18, 12:06 pm

The government cannot coerce Colorado baker Jack Phillips to bake cakes for gay weddings, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, but the future remains uncertain for other Christians in the wedding business. Though seven of nine justices agreed in Masterpiece Cakeshop v.

First Amendment
| The Christian college’s victory could set a precedent for others still fighting Obamacare’s contraceptive and abortifacient mandate

Bonnie Pritchett | 2/27/18, 03:39 pm

Wheaton College has secured what even the Little Sisters of the Poor has not: A permanent injunction against the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive and abortifacient mandate. After five years of legal wrangling, a U.S. district court judge’s Feb. 22 ruling finally freed the college from the federal regulation.

Evan Wilt | 2/27/18, 11:37 am

Twenty states sued the federal government Monday seeking to invalidate Obamacare now that Congress has axed the tax penalty for not having individual health insurance. In the lawsuit, the states claim Congress’ decision to undo the individual mandate penalty, part of the Republican tax bill President Donald Trump signed into law in December, invalidates the entire healthcare law.

Leigh Jones | 12/15/17, 04:44 pm

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a Trump administration rule giving more employers an exemption to Obamacare’s contraception and abortifacient mandate. The rule, issued in October, allowed more employers to claim a religious objection to paying for the drugs. California, Washington, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Virginia all sued to block the rule from taking effect. U.S.